U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 48
02 - 08 March 2002


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Tajik IDPs in Kabul move back to Shomali Plains
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women emerging from the shadow of the Taliban
AFGHANISTAN: Mortality rate drops at Maslakh: WHO
AFGHANISTAN: Northern village devastated by earthquake
AFGHANISTAN: Voluntary repatriation gaining momentum
AFGHANISTAN: Quake death toll set to rise
AFGHANISTAN: Pashtun persecution leads to calls for better security
AFGHANISTAN: Iran to close Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps
TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake update
PAKISTAN: Focus on continuing violence against women
PAKISTAN: Polio vaccination campaign begins
PAKISTAN: Focus on skin bleaching
PAKISTAN: Fears of imminent water shortage
PAKISTAN: Virtual university launched
PAKISTAN: Women celebrate solidarity


AFGHANISTAN: Tajik IDPs in Kabul move back to Shomali Plains

Thousands of Afghans living in the former Soviet compound in the capital
Kabul, started to return home on Thursday, with help from the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency
UNHCR. The IDPs settled in the compound in 1999 after being forced from
their homes on the Shomali Plains, 15 km north of the capital, by the
Taliban. "These are all voluntary returns," Louis Hoffmann of IOM
Afghanistan told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Friday. Some
2,500 displaced people, making up a convoy of 19 buses and 13 trucks were
transported to villages in the Qarabagh district of the Shomali Plains, he
explained. There is a total of 15,700 people living in squalid conditions
in the compound, according to a survey in December 2001 by the NGOs Save
the Children and CARE.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=24138&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women emerging from the shadow of the Taliban

On the eve of International Women's Day Afghan women are beginning to
celebrate their gradual emergence from the shadows of the Taliban rule.
They want to become more active players in their country's reconstruction
and demand better security and an end to warlordism. Emboldened by the
Taliban's departure, and hoping for a better future, they are more visible
on the streets and in offices and women's groups meetings, narrating their
harrowing experiences, and demanding a more active role in the future.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23991&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Mortality rate drops at Maslakh: WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday reported a significant
decrease in mortality rates at the Maslakh internally displaced persons
(IDPs) camp in western Afghanistan. The subject of strong international
concern over health conditions, an estimated 180,000 displaced persons
have been living at the windswept camp since September 2000. According to
the world health body, in December 2001, the crude mortality rate at
Maslakh was 0.47 per 10,000 people, representing a death rate of
approximately 50 persons per week. Since February, that figure has dropped
to 0.2 per 10,000 or around 25 per week, an official explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23855&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Northern village devastated by earthquake

A blanket of death covers the northern Afghanistan village of Dakhil Ezaw.
Following Sundays powerful earthquake, 70 villagers now lie buried metres
deep below an ivory-coloured avalanche of lime powder. Another 30 people
were drinking tea in the village restaurant before evening prayers. They
were also instantly buried under tons of lime powder - as fine as flour
but heavy enough to destroy houses, engulf roads and dam the river passing
through the village. The tremors were so strong that they caused the rock
face directly above Dakhil Ezaw to break away and bury most of the
village. There is little hope of finding survivors amongst the 100 people
missing.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23852&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Voluntary repatriation gaining momentum

More than 3,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan crossed the border into
Afghanistan on the second working day of the voluntary repatriation drive
launched by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). The ambitious regional effort, which began on Friday, 1
March, seeks to repatriate up to five million Afghans over the next five
years. "We had 3,009 Afghans on Monday alone," the UNHCR emergency
coordinator, Kwame Boafo, told IRIN from the northwestern Pakistani city
of Peshawar. "This is a significant amount, which we could well surpass
today," he said. Most of the largely ethnic Tajik group, comprising 564
families, were bound for the Afghan capital, Kabul, or the eastern
province of Nangarhar.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23743&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Quake death toll set to rise

The death toll from Sunday's devastating earthquake in Afghanistan is set
to rise, a UN official told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul on Tuesday.
"We don't have enough reports from enough places to give accurate casualty
figures," the UN spokeswoman, Stephanie Bunker, said. "Nonetheless, it is
fair to assume that the death toll may rise." Bunker's comments came after
unconfirmed reports of up to 150 dead in the mountainous Central Asian
country. Although reports on the extent of damage are unclear, in Kabul,
three districts were badly affected and 32 families had reportedly lost
their homes. Unconfirmed reports suggest that six people were killed and
up to 20 injured.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23744&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Pashtun persecution leads to calls for better security

A minister in the Afghan interim government has backed a Human Rights
Watch (HRW) recommendation to send peacekeepers to northern Afghanistan to
ensure the safety of ethnic Pashtuns. "Only this will ensure security and
stop violence from spreading," Amanullah Zadran, the interim minister for
border affairs, told IRIN on Monday from the capital, Kabul. Zadran, whose
ministry is responsible for maintaining harmony among Afghanistan's
multiple ethnic groups and tribes, added that the government had swiftly
reacted to such incidents by consulting General Rashid Dostum, the deputy
defence minister, and other political and military leaders in the north.
In a press statement on Sunday, HRW said armed political factions of
Hazara, Uzbek and Tajik ethnicities in northern Afghanistan were
subjecting ethnic Pashtuns to murder, beatings, sexual violence and
intimidation, forcing them to abandon villages to seek asylum and refuge
elsewhere.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23539&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Iran to close Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps

Iranian officials confirmed to IRIN on Monday plans to close two camps for
internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Afghanistan. Established after
11 September, and home to more than 10,000 Afghan IDPs, the Mahkaki and
Mile-46 camps in southwestern Nimruz Province, are administered by the
Iranian Red Crescent Society. "As per our plans for repatriation in April,
we will begin the process of closing these two camps during the
repatriation process," the international affairs officer for the Iranian
Bureau for Foreigners and Illegal Aliens (BAFIA), Rostam-Ali Rostami, said
from the Iranian capital, Tehran. In coordination with the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), BAFIA hopes to
repatriate some 400,000 Afghan refugees this year alone.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23560&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Earthquake update

Over 470 houses, about 30 schools and 30 medical facilities were damaged
by the powerful earthquake that struck Tajikistan and the rest of the
region on Sunday, 3 March, according to information received by IRIN on
Thursday from the Tajik Emergency Situations Ministry (ESM) and the Tajik
Red Crescent Society. The mountainous Badakhshoni Kuhi Autonomous Region
in the east and southwestern Khatlon Region suffered most from the
earthquake. In the east, the earthquake damaged 50 houses (20 completely
ruined), 18 schools and 6 km of power and communication lines in Ishkoshim
District. A further 65 houses were damaged in Rushon District. The ESM
said 79 houses, a school and a hospital in Qumsangir District in
southwestern Tajikistan were all destroyed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=24028&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on continuing violence against women

Lying on a bed at Pakistan's Institute for Medicine and Science (PIMS) in
the capital, Islamabad, Manzoora Bibi was still in shock and could hardly
talk, six months after her husband took a knife to her face and cut her
nose off after she argued with him. "I don't want the police to know what
happened, I am lucky to be alive, but I fear for my children," she told
IRIN. The 32-year-old mother of three will spend another three months in
hospital before her nose is reconstructed to an acceptable level and she
is able to leave. Her case was taken up by the state-run crisis centre for
women in Islamabad, who are providing her with medical and legal aid if
she chooses to take her husband to court.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=24061&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Polio vaccination campaign begins

A three-day country-wide polio vaccination campaign designed to eradicate
a disease which has left thousands of children crippled, was launched in
Pakistan on Tuesday, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official told IRIN.
"The country is now on the verge of eradicating polio," the WHO medical
officer for polio eradication, Dr Anthony Mounts said in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad. "We expect to eradicate the disease by the end of this
year if we can carry out high-quality immunisation rounds this spring and
fall," he maintained. With a population of over 140 million, Pakistan has
made significant progress towards attaining polio-free status. This week's
campaign would specifically target hard access areas such as urban slums,
in addition to extending immunisation coverage to refugees in the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23746&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on skin bleaching

Graduating with a master's degree in science, 23 year-old Nasim Jamil is
an attractive young Pakistani lady, but unhappy with her looks. "I am not
fair enough," she told IRIN. "White is best," she maintained. Such
comments are not uncommon in this Asian country, where skin colour is
increasingly being promoted to reflect one's position in society, a
phenomenon which has serious implications. Today Jamil is receiving
counselling in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, to improve her
self-esteem.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23513&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Fears of imminent water shortage

Water levels at the Tarbela dam, some 60 km west of the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad, are sinking fast, raising fears of a serious water shortage in
the country this year, officials told IRIN on Monday. "We have not had the
expected rain and snowfall," the deputy director of Pakistan's ministry of
water and power, Rashid Ali, said. The dam, which supplies water mainly
for irrigation in the Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and North West Frontier
provinces, is currently being depleted at the rate of about half a metre a
day. "It could reach the dead level in a few days' time," Ali said. Some
25,000 cusecs (one cubic foot per second) of water were being released to
the provinces from Tarbela every 10 days, compared to an inflow of just
12,200 cusecs, he explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23524&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Virtual university launched

The Pakistani government is launching a virtual university on 25 March,
which will impart formal education to students across the country, without
having them to relocate and giving them access to one of the best
faculties in the world. Virtual study facilities like this initiative
could prove an asset to underfunded traditional higher education sectors
in developing countries. Rector of the Virtual University, Naveed Malik,
told IRIN from the Pakistani city of Lahore, that in the first phase,
1,000 students will be enrolled in a four-year degree programme of
Bachelor of Computer Science. The university invited applications from
students on Friday. It plans to expand the number of subjects and students
in the future.

http://www.irinnews.org/AsiaFP.asp?SelectRegion=Central_Asia

PAKISTAN: Women celebrate solidarity

A day before International Women's Day (IWD), some 700 Afghan and
Pakistani women gathered in a show of unity in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad on Thursday. Organised by the United Nations and Pakistan's
National Council of the Arts (PNCA), the event included many female
refugees in the south Asian country who had fled Afghanistan after decades
of war and conflict. Hundreds of women worked on a huge embroidered banner
that would later be hung from a building in the Afghan capital Kabul to
remind people of the closeness between the two nations. The theme for this
year's event is: "Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities", he
explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=24009&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


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